Bats have always seemed mysterious predators. While many other animal predators use methods 1 similar to human hunters, bats have evolved a series of unique methods of capturing prey. 2 The main curiosity among the bat's weaponry is its use of echolocation, or sonar.
Because bats hunt in the dark, they are not often able to see their prey. Instead, they use a process wherein they emit sounds and listen for the echoes. If 3 they are, say, standing atop a mountain and shout, you can figure out the distance across the canyon using the speed of sound waves and a series of precise calculations. Using its innate senses, a bat does these same 4 calculations instinctively. With extreme precision, a bat can identify its prey's location and size in the dark and capture its prey. While a bat does have relatively acute vision, 5 though not nearly as acute as some species of shrimp, its echolocation is what makes it such an effective predator.
However, scientists have recently discovered a species that can disrupt the bat's usually failsafe echolocation. The tiger moth, a victim of bat predation for over 50 million years, has figured out a way to "jam" 6 its system of echolocation. Most tiger moths can emit clicks that warn bats away from the moths, suggesting that the moths might be inedible toxic compounds.7
In the long history of bat research, scientists have never seen the like of these tiger moths. Although human methods of warfare have used sonic deception for as long as such warfare has existed, the tiger moth and 8 their sonar jamming provide one of the first instances of aural camouflage in the animal kingdom that scientists have discovered. It seems that no matter how ancient the conflict, bats and tiger moths continue to attack, 9 counterattack, and adapt in a war as old as time.
One species, the tiger moth Bertholdia trigona, has done even better. This species emits a high-frequency clicking noise that throws off the bat's sonar altogether. While no one is certain exactly how these clicks camouflage the B. trigona, the clicks have been remarkably successful in defending the moths from bat attacks. Some suggest that the clicks force bats to misinterpret their sensory data, taking the moth clicks for their own echoes. As a result, bats 10 miss their prey at the moment of attempted capture, and the tiger moths flit away unharmed.11